y waiting in port until they could
sail under convoy of a ship-of-war. Attempting to get to windward in a
heavy sea, the Essex was much racked and injured some of her spars, and
her captain therefore decided to bear away for refit to St.
Catherine's--a port five hundred miles south of Rio Janeiro, which had
been named in his instructions as a contingent rendezvous. On the 20th
of January, 1813, the Essex anchored there, and began the work of
refitting and filling with water and fresh provisions. A few days after
her arrival a small Portuguese vessel came in, bringing an account of
the capture by the Montagu of an American corvette, which Porter
supposed to be the Hornet, as well as a rumor of the action between the
Constitution and the Java, and a report that re-enforcements were
reaching the British naval force on the station. The history of past
wars convinced Porter that the neutrality of the Portuguese port in
which he was lying would not be respected by the enemy. In a very few
days his presence there must become known; any junction with his
consorts was rendered most unlikely by the news just received, and he
determined at once to undertake alone the mission for which the three
ships had been dispatched. With admirable promptitude, both of decision
and action, the Essex sailed the same night for the Pacific.

From the time of leaving the United States the crew of the ship had been
restricted to that close and economical allowance of provisions and
water which was necessary to a vessel whose home ports were blocked by
enemy's cruisers, and which in every quarter of the globe might expect
to meet the fleets and influence of a powerful foe. The passage round
Cape Horn, always stormy, was both a long and severe strain to a vessel
bound from east to west, and dependent wholly upon sail; for the winds
prevail from the westward. The utmost prudence was required in
portioning out both food and water, and of bread there remained, on
leaving St. Catherine's, only enough for three months at half
allowance--that is, at half a pound per day. The boy Farragut thus found
himself, at the outset of his career, exposed to one of the severest
tests of his arduous calling--a long and stormy passage, made in the
teeth of violent gales, and with a crew reduced to the scantiest
possible allowance of food, under conditions when the system most
demands support. In his journal he speaks, as Porter does in his, of the
severe suffering and d